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Many of us couldn't imagine life without four-legged friends tooling around the house, waiting by the door when we get home, crooning by the food dish, or curling onto our lap whenever we settle in to watch Battlestar Galactica. So it's surprising that it took The Sims 2 four expansions before the game got around to adding pets. While the animals themselves sent us into cute overload, there's not a lot of real meaty gameplay here -- not enough to make The Sims 2 Pets a must-have. Fans of the franchise will get a kick out of the new furry friends, but if you're new to the Sims world, the other expansions offer a lot more bang for the buck.

Sims' Best Friend

Pets adds dogs, cats, birds and little fuzzballs called "womrats" to the core game. Birds and womrats act more like interactive decorations (that occasionally fly around the room). But the cats and dogs are the stars of the show: Like little family members, each has a distinct personality and mind of its own.

Pets can't be directly told what to do, and instead have to be trained to guide their behavior. Whenever a pet does something, you can have a nearby Sim praise or scold the animal. A well-trained dog or cat won't go to the bathroom in the house, will only eat pet food, will stay off of your bed and won't destroy your furniture. You can also train animals to misbehave, if you're so inclined -- you get some fun results by praising your cat for yowling or running crazily around the room. You can also teach specific tricks, such as rolling over or "speaking." The training system is intuitive and fun.

It's also a necessity. In an interesting play mechanic, dogs and cats have a need to scratch or chew on things, in the same way that humans need entertainment. So you'll need to provide chew toys and scratching posts as well as training. Failure has consequences, and not just puddles on the kitchen floor. A bad dog can destroy a couch, rendering your $5000 sofa into a heap of garbage before you can say "Animal Control."

Cats and dogs make good company -- they can quickly boost a Sim's fun and social meters, making human friends almost obsolete. And they can also hold down jobs: Special pet career tracks are in the game, allowing Fido to bring home the bacon as a guard dog or movie star. Just like human Sims, pets have to learn specific skills before they can advance up the career ladder. It's a trip to watch your pet dog bark and growl at the tires of his limousine, then gingerly get inside to be whisked away to Hollywood.

How Much is That Puppy Running on Windows?

There are a couple areas where the expansion really shines, and the actual rendering of the animals is one of them. As detailed in our recent preview, the dogs and cats themselves look outstanding. The animations are spot-on, with every little behavior and mannerism faithfully depicted. More importantly, the animals are cute! You get a genuine emotional response watching a Sim play fetch with his trusty dog or picking up and squeezing a newly adopted kitten.